There's the culture difference, for sure. Thankfully, I don't have this experience. While I like to think of myself as peaceful and moral and whatnot, I do realize that goes as far as living in peaceful times. I doubt I (or many of us, for that matter) would afford such qualms if there were vicious mobs coming for us in the street...

What stopped you from getting one?

As for target shooting, I think it's a matter of what you associate it with, as I was saying to someone else here. For us over here, guns would be heavily associated with news stories of gang shootouts, school shootings and of course, gangster or other such outlaw movies. For myself, I tried to channel my best Samuel L Jackson, but somehow couldn't hold it. :D